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Hunger Games Movie Reaction

Part of me REALLY, SUPER LOVED the Hunger Games movie. The other part of me was extremely disappointed.

Now don’t go calling the Peacekeepers on me or anything, because I truly did think that there were some awesome parts of the movie, but there were also some other parts that were close to my heart and were left out of the film, and that bothered me. (Such as 99% of the ending, such as *spoilers* Katniss having to mess with Peeta’s tourniquet, and then admitting to him right before they get back to 12 that she only faked loving him in order to win the games).

However, for all that was lost in the translation from book to film, there were some great added scenes in the movie that I adored, especially the ones with Seneca Crane (although his amazing beard occasionally distracted me from what was actually going on, throughout that 😉 ).

The movie did make me cry, but not when *spoilers* Rue died. It was when I saw her father in District 11, reacting to her death.

The movie did make me laugh, but it was less for Peeta’s self-deprecating humor from the novel — which really only presented itself in one scene, during his pre-Games interview — as much as the dynamic between Effie and Haymitch (which is very humorous, let me tell you).

Honestly, I thought Haymitch was not nearly drunk enough throughout the film, the emotional scenes didn’t play out well because they didn’t vamp up the emotion but instead jumped from Low Emotion straight to High Emotion, and the ending was just plain messed up — and not in a “we ran out of time to do the ending properly” kind of messed up way, but like they thought the book ending wasn’t important enough to portray… which is what, above all else, really, truly bothered me.

I’m not mad… overall, it was still a good movie. And I’m not exactly disappointed, either… it’s more like I’m, well, grieving. All these months anticipating this movie, and picturing it in my head, and in the end it wasn’t what I was expecting it to be.

Which is, I guess when you think about it, to be expected.

So the Hunger Games movie wasn’t what I wanted it to be. Oh well. That doesn’t take away from the fact that it was a good movie, most of the acting was superb (although don’t get me started on Liam Hemsworth’s Gale, which was extremely shaky in the scene that he’s introduced, out in the woods), and the setting was spot-on and beautiful in the way that only a fully-contrived universe can be.

… Which basically leaves me back at square one: I don’t know what to think. Part of me loves the movie, part of me has no choice but to be disappointed. But either way, I’m glad that I got to see the midnight screening of it, and I’m glad that I’m getting to see it again this weekend — maybe then I’ll be able to think through what I think of it more and make a decision on it.

My reaction? A solid film, one of the best book-to-movie adaptions I’ve seen, and definitely worth the money to go out and see it (even if it’s only so you can swoon over Josh Hutcherson)… But be prepared to lose some of the depth from the novel, especially dealing with the subplot-character-relationships. I’m excited, now, to see how they’ll handle the second movie. 🙂

I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars.

A couple of shots of me in my Katniss costume before I left for the movie. 🙂

20 thoughts on “Hunger Games Movie Reaction”

i found this blog because of your Katniss costume picture, i want to dress like an avox and i did read the books loved them! and enjoyed the movie, your review is accurate to my feelings. jealous you saw the movie at midnight! if i knew you in real life we would prally be friends

That’s so cool! You should def do it. 🙂 When I went, all of my friends and I dressed up like different characters, so we had Peeta, and Prim, and Cinna, and Haymitch, and Buttercup (yes, Buttercup), and Rue, and all of the other major characters (minus Gale, because apparently none of us really like him all that much, lol). It was super fun seeing it at midnight — if you get the chance to do it for Catching Fire, go for it. I love midnight movies, because it’s always like a giant nerd party. Completely awesome. 😀

Well, I’m always up for making new friends, so feel free to comment whenever you want to. 🙂

can i send you my avox pic somehow it was pretty cool, i did midnight for harry potter 3-7part 2 and it is so fantastic. tomorrow is katniss’s birthday and i think i am stealing your outfit design except i do not have a mocking jay pin like you do. it’s sad but true no one really likes gale that much but he is important. i hope to hear from you soon and this time i bookmarked the site so i can find it again. i am so glad i found you in the first place. 🙂 super psyched for tomorrow 😀

I will have to read the books again before I watch the movie…. I haven’t read them since they first came out, which is over a year ago, now, isn’t it? Thanks for your movie review! And yes…. Josh Hutcherson is definitely drool-worthy! (With an added bonus of actually being a good actor, unlike so many other tweeny-boppers, hahaha)

I choose to either read the book or watch the movie. I never care for movie adaptations after I’ve read the book, but feel disappointed when I see the movie and then read the book. There is always disappointment, but my biggest disappointment was at, “dear JOhn,” by Nicholas Sparks. I read the book then saw the movie…major bummer! They butchered the ending to make it amiable for movie goers. So I haven’t read Hunger Games, but the movie looks intriguing, so if I see the movie this weekend, odds are, I won’t read the books.

I have to agree about “Dear John.” I was really excited after reading the book to see the movie, and I was honestly a bit disgusted by the ending; it seems that movie makers are scared of making the hard decisions, these days… Personally, if you have to decide: Read the Hunger Games books. The movie’s good, but the books are definitely better.

Okay. I will read the books, then. Glad someone agrees with me on the Dear John thing. The movie makers played it safe, but was very surprised that Sparks didn’t. I was upset at the book ending, but loved that it wasn’t the usual “happy ever after,” and became okay with that.

AHHHHHHH!!! I’m angry at them now…how could they NOT make the ending awesome??? And Gale was my favorite character in the first book. THEY CAN’T JUST MAKE HIM NOT COOL!! (*spoilers* I didn’t like Gale after he killed Prim with the bomb in the last book, especially since he didn’t have the courage to tell Katniss what he did, instead he just ran away to District 2 and never talked to her again. MEANY. But before then, he was AMAZING, I lurved the kid 😛 *end of spoilers*)
I’ll probably have more to say after I see the movie tomorrow, so…until then. 🙂 (YOU’RE GOING TO SEE IT AGAIN???? LUCKYYYYY)

Don’t worry, he’s really good for the rest of it — it’s just that one scene that he’s bad in. (Mainly, he sounds like an Australian making fun of an American accent in it. And that really bothered me. But he did well for everything else in the movie. 🙂 )

Sooo… now that you’ve seen it… WHAT DID YOU THINK??!! 😀 (You should know that after seeing the movie the second time, I completely changed my attitude and I now love it and am willing to look past the parts that I didn’t love.)

Hahahaha, it was AMAZING!!! 🙂 Even though they left out some stuff (the cornucopia is REALLY bothering me still 😛 and what happened to the red headed avox????) it was really great 😛 I want to see it againnnnnnnnn….

i read all 3 books but thanks for adding the spoilers * i had never realized it was gale who bombed the children and ultimately killed prim. my problem with him and Mrs. Everdeen is they always wanted to run away and when they had a chance they totally did. to district 4 and 2. in the end of the day cinna and finnick should have lived, and peeta+katniss’ kids should have had names. i personally call the girl ruerose and the boy cinnick but that;s just me.hope to tlk about this one

He didn’t actually kill them, but he came up with the idea for the bomb. Coin used the idea for the bomb to kill everyone; but Katniss can’t let go of the fact that it was Gale’s bomb. And I totally agree! I mean, Mrs Everdeen got better when she tried to take care of Katniss, but she always wanted to run away from her problems instead of fighting to work through them. I never really named Katniss’ children, but I like how you named them after the other people she loved 🙂